Peripheral Core of Law and Criminology: On Postmodern Social Theory and Conceptual Integration

• NCJ Number: 161063
• Journal: Justice Quarterly Volume: 12 Issue: 3 Dated: (September 1995) Pages: 447-472
• Author(s): B A Arrigo
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 26 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: A previous version of this paper was presented at the 46th annual meetings of the American Society of Criminology, held November 9-12, 1994, in Miami.

Annotation

This paper extends Milovanovic's (1995) provisional assessment of several core sociological and epistemological forces that underpin both conventional (modernist) and nonconventional (postmodernist) theory construction and applies them to law and criminology.

Abstract

These themes of import include the social structure of society, role formation, human agency, discourse construction, knowledge or "sense-making," and social change. This conceptual approach offers great potential for appreciating postmodernism and its likely contributions to criminal and legal thought. Along the way, the author uses various justice-based illustrations to help ground the otherwise abstract and philosophical material. The paper concludes with speculation on the importance of theoretical synthesis in the study of modernist and postmodernist law, crime, and deviance. This supplemental commentary will extend and apply the previous analysis to an identifiable topic of criminal justice concern. Further, the analysis will provide a provisional, speculative backdrop from which to respond directly to the criticisms leveled against the postmodern perspective. 164 references